Even if I take them out of the greenhouse over winter until spring comes round again? I will just see how they go I suppose they seem to be looking better since I put then in there especially the apple trees and pear.

It probably can be done just not easily I live on the uk so it's not overly hot here anyway.

Anything can be done. Just research it.

im sure you can do that, but why? If your taking them out of the greenhouse in fall so they can harden off properly and taking the back in only after the weather outside is right for bloom what are you gaining? In fact your loosing by not having them in the ground.

if it's bird protection just net them. It's a whole lot less work.

Ben, that is a really bad idea in my opinion. Even here in the UK it can get very hot inside a plastic greenhouse. Put a thermometer in there (or phone app if you have one) and you'll see. Without air movement you are likely to get a build up of aphids and other pests which rain and wind normally reduce in numbers. Exposure to the weather also strengthens new growth. And birds are not always an enemy. Tits eat tons of aphid eggs over the Winter and caterpillars in the Spring when feeding their young. Stagnant air and probable condensation will also encourage fungal diseases. I would take your trees out asap and keep them out or there is a high risk of losing 6 expensive trees. For the cherries just net them against birds when the fruit sets. Birds do not much bother apple or pear fruit in my experience.

BTW in our climate you don't need to concern yourself with the concept of winter chill at all. As long as they are outdoors they'll get enough.

I think that you should keep an accurate thermometer in the greenhouse, Ben. I'll bet that it gets hotter in the long sunny days of high summer than you think.

How are you going to address the pollination issue?

If this is going to be a permanent solution for a bird problem, you need to be darned sure that you are using an excellent, conifer bark based potting mix that is extremely coarse textured and well drained. You will need to repot and root prune every couple of years in order to maintain your trees' vigor.

Also, be aware that insect and disease issues may very well be magnified in a hot, humid captive environment. Spider mites, aphids, scale, and whitefly can show up in droves.

I'm not trying to talk you out of it but simply mentioning some obstacles you may or may not have planned for.

Good luck!

At the very least provide some ventilation over the summer, 20% open area top and bottom. Cover those openings with bird netting.

Well, I am trying to talk you out of it ;-) I can't see any reason at all to do it. Not only do I think it's pointless and won't help the trees in anyway, I think it will cause a mass of problems.

Because I feed the birds too and they get tangled in netting and I had too cut some free which is why I had to get greenhouse. They seem pretty happy in there so far and I open the door when it's hot the birds don't go in there because it's enclosed. I will just keep an eye on them.

Aphids and bugs have been no different so far than outside. And they are made to be small these trees get to 2 metres max they grow like a column. I think it's the easiest way I can deal with everything and root pruning is fine.

I couldn't find much information on it when researchin other than putting them outside over winter so they have a chill time so they fruit the next year.

I am familiar with the 'Maypole' type trees you have. You probably couldn't find much information on growing them in a greenhouse because it just isn't a sensible way to grow them. But clearly I can't dissuade you. I still think it is a terrible idea. Maybe this is a lesson you'll just have to learn the hard way. Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Ignore information about chill hours - it really doesn't apply in the UK. Even in the greenhouse they'd get enough chill.

You still made a bad choice. A screenhouse would solve all of your problems without bringing new ones.

The types of trees you have are not meant to survive the heat that a greenhouse would bring in summer. It can be done but your going to be fighting a pointless, self induced battle.

Ok well I just searched screen house I will keep doors open and cut a hole in back and put net over it tightly so it has air coming in. I will keep youse updated on how it copes with the summer I found an article saying it can be done but make sure you let some air in with doors open or windows to cool it down and lower humidity.

I may have to buy a screenhouse before it gets hotter.

Does anyone know where I can get like a cheap cage / screen house from lon the internet.

Just get aluminum window screen and make it.

Window screen is not available here. We don't have screens on windows or doors because we don't have the bugs. Ben, research 'fruit cages', not screen houses. There are lots of ways of making a fruit cage.

That's weird. You don't have any bugs in the uk?

We do but not enough to bother us. I have just eaten my supper outside. First time it's been warm enough this year this late. It's 11.00 p.m. Candles. Not a bug to be seen.

I have just read about the bagging method using ziplock bags to cover the apples as they form so light gets in bit birds and pests cannot. And have the corners of the bag cut off so water can drain out.

I net my soft fruit bushes and canes to prevent birds from eating the berries and although starlings and black birds keep launching themselves on to it ,they never get tangled, by the way I too feed the birds and wouldn't like to hurt them.

I think I'm going to do the ziplock bag method i looked at a comparison between ones grown on them and they looked bigger healthier and no holes in them.

It's the baby starlings that get caught in the netting they are a bit silly.

You're going to bag cherries? That sounds like a lot of time.

Id still use screen.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Supreme-Fibreglass-Window-Screen-Mesh/dp/B00KION550

I'll bag a few groups of cherries if the birds take the rest they do but I'm more concerned for the apples and pears this year as the cherries won't grow this year it was a bare root tree from end of last year.

I don't have too many fruit tree so it isn't that much work bagging th fruit anyway.

Will blueberry bushes and black currants not tolerate the heat of the greenhouse either as I have them in there now along with my strawberries.

The heat could be too much for blues and currants though ,strawberry won't mind it. How about adapting the safety net for trampoline to protect your trees, it will help with hail storms too ? I am just sitting in the garden enjoying the rare sunny day and I m looking at the trampoline's net right now.

I think that blackcurrants would absolutely hate it under plastic. I find that the blackbirds don't bother them at all. They go mad for the redcurrants but ignore blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries. I net the reds, but only between fruit set and the end of harvest. Even if you do decide on using the greenhouse, which, as you know, I think is a bad idea, there's no reason for anything to be in there until it is fruiting.

How about trying a melon in there? Or a fig? Now those would enjoy the heat. Also peppers and basil. It's wasteful using greenhouse space for hardy fruit completely adapted to our climate.

I'm curious to know whether you have actually had any trouble with birds eating apples or pears. Or are you just anticipating it? I've never seen any evidence of that problem myself.

If you want blueberries in the greenhouse get rabbit eye varieties or southern low bush varities.

dont get northern high bushes or low bush varities

I have left the strawberries and raspberrys in there the blueberry and black currant are out I will bag the apples pears and cherries and then just hope the birds don't eat too much of the black currants. I may get some melons or figs though.

You seem determined to put something in there! Raspberries are as bad an idea as all the others in my opinion. They are native in the British Isles and are just not going to be happy under those conditions. They should be outdoors.

I know people who have strawberries and raspberries in greenhouses and turn out lovely. And I just don't want to have more birds trapped in betting and cannot afford to ijvest in more stuff for the garden.

Can you give us a picture if this greenhouse? I am envisaging one of those plastic jobs with a zip. I know people grow these things in big commercial set ups where the environment is controlled but I've never come across anyone doing it in a domestic setting.

FWIW song birds have never gone for my raspberries yet (20 years). They love the redcurrants but leave all else alone. The jackdaws go for embryonic the greengages but festooning the tree with CDs on strings and orange Sainsburys bags seems to keep them at bay. I have far more bird trouble from wood pigeons on the brassicas. I net those. If the netting is really taut and well pinned down the birds don't get caught up in it.

Oh, ok. That's small. Just leave the door open and you won't have issues. I was thinking bigger.

You had us picturing larger crop of cherry trees. I will only now add that smaller greenhouses are much harder to control temperature shifts than larger ones. For that reason I'll not put up another one less than 28' wide.

But Floral you need to adjust your ideas on why people grow crops in greenhouses. I have a crop of black raspberries growing in one just to get a month jump on the market. Since they are primocane I'm even planning on two crops each season.

This is a 30'x 78' structure for which I was thinking about planting cherry trees. Ben, you didn't get my point of changing the cycle of the trees. If you have them in the greenhouse in latte winter they will break dormancy and begin flowering. At that point you need to take all measures to keep blossoms from frosting or you've lost that year's crop.

I think I will just keep them outside I've got some nectarines and peach trees on the way now. So I'm happy.

Will just sell the greenhouse once I'm done with the strawberry plants in there.

"But Floral you need to adjust your ideas on why people grow crops in greenhouses. "

Barrie, you do me an injustice. I am well aware of poly tunnel production. It is widely used here, given our unpredictable weather. Notice I said "I know people grow these things in big commercial set ups where the environment is controlled but I've never come across anyone doing it in a domestic setting." You say yourself you are growing for the market, so to me that is a commercial set up and you also emphasise the importance of a sizeable hoop house.

The greenhouse in the photo is exactly the type and size I had pictured from the OP's description. I just wanted confirmation. In my view it is not a good place to try and grow hardy fruit like Blackcurrants. In the picture I would say that the currant is already showing signs of etiolation due to the reinforced plastic cutting down the light. The shoots should not be so pale nor the leaf joints so far apart. The apple also looks pale to me. If you need to open both ends the bird deterrent effect is lost so I see no advantages.

The original question was" Are fruit trees OK in plastic greenhouse?" Given the type of greenhouse, my answer is still 'No' for hardy tree and bush fruits. But only the OP will know the answer in the long term.

The pots you have those plants in look WAAAAY too small. I wouldn't be comfortable growing fruit trees, even dwarf varieties, permanently in pots in anything smaller in size than 10-15 gallons, unless I didn't care about getting any apples from them most years. And if you do use large enough pots, the strain of constantly moving such big things every season in and out would make you reconsider not planting them in the ground, IMO.

I've grown all kinds of fruits in a greenhouse for 11 yrs. This is in SW Texas at 4500ft elevation. The greenhouse has a wet wall and large exhaust fans for cooling, a heater to avoid freezes, and is 32x54x16ft tall. The fruit has been the best I've ever grown and yields are many times those outdoors. Freezes, hail, wind, birds, coons, etc greatly reduce yield outdoors but not inside.

I have a writeup here:

http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens/growing-fruits-and-nuts/cultural-practices/greenhouse-fruit-growing/greenhouse-fruit-production-in-west-texas

fruitnut - did you see the picture of the OP's 'greenhouse'? It doesn't resemble your set up at all and has none of your equipment. This is all going on in a UK back garden, the scale of which is microscopic compared with the kind of properties many of you guys are used to. My answers to the OP's query were specifically based on the kind of greenhouse and the kind of climate he has. I am not contending for one minute that fruit can't be grown in greenhouses. Just that it can't be grown successfully in the OP's type of greenhouse in the OP's climate. He was essentially just looking for a way to keep birds off the fruit, not to grow for market or to beat the seasons and that little greenhouse isn't the way to do it imo.

floral I agree with you. I was just pointing out it can be done for anyone who might be interested. But one has to know their crop, climate, objectives, and then design a greenhouse that will accomplish the desired results.